High-resolution CONTINENTal paleoclimate record in the Lake Baikal: A key-site for Eurasian teleconnections to the North Atlantic Ocean and monsoonal system CONTINENT 

2001-2004, with annex programme 2003-2004

We use both biological and non-biological proxies to reconstruct climate variability on a European - Asian transect during the interglacials Holocene (10 ka years ago to present) and Eemian (c. 110 - 130 ka years ago), and the preceding Terminations I and II phases. However, in order to do this with confidence we will also investigate contemporary processes in the lake that are likely to affect each of the different climate proxies. Challenges identified include understanding: (i) biological processes in the photic zones, e.g., immediately before, during and after ice break up and during prominent seasonal changes, and life cycle strategies of organisms dependent on ice-cover in the lake; (ii) modelling under-ice phytoplankton development in Lake Baikal, (iii) processes influencing wind-blown and riverine input to the lake; (iv) quantifing total bacterial community in sediment samples for understanding degradation and mineral transformation at the sediment/water interface, (v) transport of biological and non-biological particles through the water column, e.g. rates of transport, seasonality; and (v) processes that affect final incorporation of particles from the water / sediment-surface interface, into the sedimentary record, e.g. grazing, dissolution. (vi) to evaluate and understand processes and changes in prevailing wind direction. Furthermore we intend to evaluate and understand processes and changes in prevailing wind direction. In order to address these challenges, climate will be reconstructed at high resolution: on decadal to centennial scales. Using these results we learn more about the influence of climate forcing factors and their feedbacks. With the unique lacustrine sediment sequences from Lake Baikal we exemplify a reference paleomagnetic record for boreal Central Asia.